1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a real-time communication method and a device therefor, and more particularly, to a real-time audio/video communication method for use on the Internet in conjunction with a homepage, and a device using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet has been so far developed around data traffic such as e-mail or web, but with the advent of applications such as distance learning and teleconferencing, which require real-time traffic delivery, the Internet is progressing towards real-time traffic such as audio/video communication. An Internet browser is a tool for facilitating access to web information using Internet communication. A Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a kind of real-time communication technology using the Internet.
According to conventional Internet communication, if one user wishes to communicate with another on the Internet, the user calls the other party already connected to the Internet, using the other party""s IP address. To this end, the user must know, in advance, the relevant IP address. Typically, an IP address can be obtained by using one or more of the following methods: a) obtaining the IP address from a given address book; b) accessing another server having a function similar to a telephone directory to obtain IP addresses of other users already connected to the server, and c) obtaining the IP address from a web server.
Thus, assuming that one is already aware of the other party""s IP address through the above methods, and if the other party is connected to the Internet, an audio/video communication link is enabled by a VoIP or a H.323 protocol. In this case, H.323 is a protocol for implementing a multimedia conferencing system including audio, video and data on a local area network (LAN) which does not provide a guaranteed quality of service.
Furthermore, the conventional Internet communication method is available only to users already connected to the Internet, so an Internet communication line needs to be open at all times. This does not make much difference to users who adopt a LAN network since the network is always open and users do not need to individually access the Internet. In contrast, in the case of users at home who access an Internet Service Provider (ISP) via a local telephone line to use an Internet communication line, if the users use the Internet actively, e.g., for web surfing and e-mail or for making an audio/video telephonic communication as a caller, they can easily handle an incoming call since they are presently connected to the ISP. However, if the users do not use it actively, they have to be continuously logged onto the ISP in order to handle an incoming call, which increases the communication cost.
Of course, there is no problem if the users use two telephone lines, one of which is dedicated to analog communication for a general telephone and the other dedicated to digital communication for the Internet. However, most users use both a general telephone and the Internet over a single telephone line, in which case they have to be continuously connected to the ISP to receive an incoming call. This produces a problem in that it is impossible to use the general telephone because the phone is always in a busy state.
To solve the above problem, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a real-time audio/video communication method wherein, in Internet-based communication between two or more terminals, the communication capability and the current status of a receiving party are both registered at the terminals or in a homepage within a web-server accessed by the receiver, and then the sending party accesses the receiver""s homepage within the web-server to initiate communication, thereby allowing the receiver to receive real-time audio/video data at any time without the need for a continuous connection to the Internet.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a real-time audio/video communication device that provides a homepage so that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) can recognize the communication status of each terminal so that it can access the sending/receiving terminals in real-time under optimum communication conditions, and which decodes the optimum communication conditions.
To achieve the first object, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for real-time communication between sending and receiving terminals in an Internet communications system in which an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is connected between the sending and receiving terminals. The method includes having the ISP check whether or not the receiving terminal is connected through a subscriber""s database to create a homepage in which the network connection status of the receiving terminal is indicated, registering the ISP""s Internet Protocol (IP) address if the receiving terminal is not connected, and registering an IP address assigned to the receiving terminal if the receiving terminal is connected; and having the ISP connect the sending terminal with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and at the same time initiating a telephone call using the telephone number of the corresponding receiving terminal if a web-browser of the sending terminal decodes and calls an IP address in the created homepage.
An embodiment of the present invention also provides a communication method used by, for example, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to connect sending and receiving terminals in real-time in an Internet communications system in which the ISP is connected between the sending and receiving terminals, the method including checking whether or not the receiving terminal is connected to the Internet through a subscriber""s database to create a homepage in which a network connection status of the receiving terminal is indicated, registering the ISP Internet Protocol (IP) address if the receiving terminal is not connected, and registering an IP address assigned to the receiving terminal if the receiving terminal subscriber is connected; initiating a predetermined communication start-up protocol to connect the sending terminal with a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and at the same time calling a telephone number of the corresponding receiving terminal if an IP address registered in the created homepage is decoded and called by a web-browser of the sending terminal; and connecting a receiving terminal and a digital communications channel to transmit a standard video/audio protocol to the receiving terminal if video/audio communication is requested from the sending terminal during the telephone call.
To achieve the second object of the present invention, an embodiment of the present invention provides a real-time communication device in an Internet communication system in which real-time communication is available, the device includes a terminal for checking which network is established at an initial stage to set up a telephone number of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in a homepage if a receiver is not connected to the Internet and to establish an Internet Protocol (IP) address in the homepage if the receiver is connected to the Internet; and an ISP which, if the homepage is accessed by a web-browser of the terminal, creates a homepage in which the network connection status of the receiver available from a subscriber""s database is indicated and in which the IP address of the ISP is registered, and if the registered IP address is called by the terminal, places a telephone call with a sender via a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and with the corresponding receiver at a predetermined telephone number.